Gabriel Diamond at the 20th MY HERO Film Festival

The 20^th MY HERO Film Festival Awards Ceremony was held on the November 16th, 2024 in Santa Monica at the Ann & Jerry Moss Theater at New Roads School. The ceremony was hosted by Gabrielle Gorman, an advocate for international human rights, who has been affiliated with MY HERO since 2017 when she herself was a student at New Roads School.

Each year, Eva Haller sponsors the Women Transforming Media Award (WTM) at the MY HERO Film Festival. Haller established the award to inspire and support filmmakers whose work features women changemakers or women’s issues. This year, she chose three winners including the documentary ‘Daga - A Woman’s Fight to Empower Girls in her Village’ directed by Fama Ndiaye of Alarba Film with Executive Producers: Sky Dylan-Robbins & Gabriel Diamond.

The film focuses on Daga Baldé from southern Senegal. Daga is a local leader in her community who is a passionate advocate for girls’ and women’s education. Her story exemplifies Tostan’s mission to foster community-driven learning and leadership. This transformation was captured by the Skoll Foundation’s Solutions Storytelling Project.

Gabriel Diamond MYRON MCCLURE PHOTOGRAPHY

Gabriel Diamond graciously accepted the award, thanking Eva for recognizing the Solutions Storytelling Project. He shared that, in the past year alone, the initiative collaborated with 19 filmmakers from across Africa, connecting them with impactful local organizations such as Tostan. Highlighting one of these collaborations, Diamond remarked, “Daga is a powerful example of local people addressing and solving deeply complex, thorny problems within their communities.”

Santos Herrera conducted interviews with several filmmakers including Gabriel at the ceremony> He asked about their involvement in the winning films, their perspectives on the MY HERO initiative, and their advice for aspiring filmmakers.

During Gabriel’s interview, he explained how his filmmaking journey began in junior high when a video production class offered him a creative outlet and shifted the direction of his life. Starting in educational filmmaking, he eventually transitioned to independent films and later secured his dream job at a foundation. This role enabled him to travel the world, telling uplifting stories about inspiring individuals and making a meaningful impact through his work.

MY HEROGabriel Diamond

Over time, though, Gabriel revealed that he began to question the ethics of "parachuting in" as an outsider to tell stories from communities he had little connection with. This realization led to the creation of The Solution Storytelling Project in collaboration with the Video Consortium. The initiative connects local filmmakers with NGOs, ensuring stories are told authentically by community members and providing opportunities for local talent. Through this project, Gabriel and his team have completed numerous films across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

For aspiring filmmakers, Gabriel's advice is to start creating without fear, using whatever tools are available, from phones to basic equipment. He emphasizes the importance of telling personal, meaningful stories, seeking constructive feedback, and learning from mistakes. Experimentation, iteration, and mentorship are key to improving one's craft, with a focus on impactful storytelling over perfection.

Diamond enthused:

I would say do the thing that scares you, that story that is inside you, that you feel like it haunts you and that you know that only you can tell. That kind of is like, is this going to freak people out? Is this too much? Is this this story really needs to be told, and I'm the one to tell it. Lean into that and just experiment and start. I think film school is great. But I think the best thing is really just start ... Make a lot of revisions. A lot of the time it's cut, cut, cut and make it shorter, shorter, shorter and better and more and more impactful. Work your way up to a feature … get a mentor, someone that you admire, and tell someone who will tell you hard truths, get hungry for hard truths and hungry for people who are going to critique your work and not try to make you feel good…Go to shoots, forget your tripod, play, forget your battery, forget your SD card. All the things that we all do. I did it all. Get it out of the way and then you become more and more professional.

To find out more about this inspiring filmmaker, director and producer go to: myhero.com/gabriel-diamond-filmmaker-showcase and read an in depth interview here: myhero.com/gabriel-diamond